In defense of Mr. Buck, yeah, sure you could come up with 9 stupid things about men. I could come up with 19 if challenged.

But that doesn't matter. Men know they're stupid. Ask a man about shopping with the wife for curtains, how to spend his money, going to his mother-in-law's house, going out with the boys drinking or taking care of his wife's nagging rat dog, and he'll admit he's a pathetic loser. Comedians mine that vein every day.

But suggest to a woman that she has faults, and watch her head explode. She can't take it.

Just like the BS staff can't pass up the fact that someone wrote and article saying women are inferior and feel the need to turn it into a long-winded post. Men wouldn't waste their time.

Don't laugh. Men find it sexy...as shown below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKGKKcpcqOs

because I made the mistake of sitting down to eat in front of the computer. What a sh---y story.

Fannie/Freddie subprime loans are NOTHING like what you've read about. As someone who's written more than a few, they differ greatly from other subprime in that:

--they all require verification of income and evidence of ability to repay all debts

--all require down payments and verification of assets

--all are fixed rate, with no chance of jumping up

--all are priced higher than prime but low enough that they don't gouge borrowers

--all are INSURED through higher mortgage insurance

--there are no prepayment penalties

Essentially, they make sense if the borrower had a once-in-a-lifetime issue (divorce, layoff, etc)and should be able to refinance into a prime loan someday.

Losing these loans would be a tragedy.

Everybody knows that if the Sauds had their way, they'd never have to buy another calendar after the year 1400. It's a wonder there are any professionals with transferable job skills still living in the Kingdom.

Nevertheless, after reading the list of conditions, some of them do actually make sense...in context.

Under 30: okay, that doesn't. Unless you want to make sure Riyahd street never look like Miami Beach's during early-bird time.

Modestly dressed: ditto to everything else in SA regarding women.

Getting a license from the women's driving center: I need a license from the state RMV. The only difference I see is that the driving centers are sex-segregated in SA. Gee, so is everything else, so that fits.

Driving outside cities: you mean where law and order ends? Given the rape conviction rate (of rapists, not the rapees, who under Saudi law probably "were asking for it"), this might make sense. Saudi men know that the odds of their mother/wife/daughter getting raped at the gas station in the middle of nowhere, and the rapist never getting caught or punished, are pretty high, so why take the chance? Given that context, I would want my wife or daughter daughter driving out there alone either.

Curfew hours: see above. I don't know why Thursday is bad though (Friday is the Muslim holy day, so maybe nobody can drive on Friday??)

So, yeah, I'd say the restrictions make sense...mostly for reasons that reflect badly on the Kingdom, though.

I mean to say that no, I WOULDN'T want my wife/daughter to drive out there under those conditions.

Just in case they read BS.

Single mother in SA??? Job??? What planet are YOU on??

Unmarried mothers in strict Islam are adulteresses or harlots. They are a source of unbearable shame for their families. Their fathers have the right to stone them, I believe, and Dad would be egged on by Mom, who no longer can show her face (figuratively speaking) to the other women in town. Getting to your job would be the least of your worries.

Maybe she's divorced, you think? Just because it's a desert doesn't mean it's Las Vegas, hon. You don't get child support. If you're a divorced woman in SA it's only because you pissed your husband off in a big way, because only men can initiate divorce, and you'd be sent back in shame to your father's house (see above, re: shame, stoning).

The only exceptions are widows, who I believe are expected to petition the king's local representative for aid, not work. If they have no relatives they are declared wards of the King as part of his obligations.

So, driving for single mothers--not in Saudi Arabia. Nope.

"I now wait to be corrected by the unmedicated nitpickers of Salon who will tell me that Chinese food was invented by Mexicans."

Here's one. Oh, no, wait, I meant to contradict you--in the Boston area, Chinese restaurants are staffed, front and back, by Chinese. Guaranteed.

I feel sorry for the Chinese food lovers in your area...

Yes, you have a point, but the Korean situation in the 1860's can be summarized a little differently:

US warship shows up in isolationist country A. Its overtures are rebuffed and fought off. Ship sails on, leaving country A unchanged.

US warship shows up in neighboring isolationist country B. They talk, make friends, and teach the natives how to build railroads, steel plants, modern artillery, and many things that help the natives compete in the modern world. The natives then become aggressive imperialists with designs against their old enemies, particularly country A.

Not only should country A NOT be surprised when they are invaded 30 years later, they should have realized, based on the history between these two nations, that it would only be a matter of time. Japan tried to conquer Korea in the 1590's under Toyotami. Then, under the Tokugawa, Japan became isolationist. Remove the Shogun and the Tokugawa tradition, and what should you expect?

Kim can blather all he wants, but if the Korean rulers in the 1860's had been a little smarter and accepted US trade and technology, the Japanese occupation and upheaval in the aftermath might have been avoided.